|
The annual licence fee deal envisages song sourcing from licensed
products to be used and already used in Balaji Telefilms serials
and on Sony’s Indian Idol show, which comes to an end later
this week.
The agreement signed between Sony and the PPL is effective retrospectively
since the launch of the programme, which was last year.
While SET India has done the deal for nearly 500 music clips for
their property Indian Idol, Balaji Telefilms has signed up
for nearly 1,000 music clips.
Pointing out that this is certainly a positive step towards implementation
of piracy laws, Indian Music Industries president Vijay Lazarus
told indiantelevision.com, “They have acknowledged and realized
the law. Both Sony and Balaji are setting a correct example as they
are using the content or music of the rightful owners.”
IMI is an apex body of a gaggle of music companies, which is active
in creating awareness about music piracy and the laws concerned
in India, apart from acting as an interface between the government
and the industry.
How do such deals work? The broadcaster and the content provider
pay a royalty at a pre-determined price for incorporation or synchronization
of music or music clips in TV programmes.
Such royalty fees could range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000, depending
on the usage. PPL has a flat rate of Rs 25,000 per music clip, but
on bulk deals discounts are extended. Snapping up 1,000 or more
clips would bring down the cost to Rs 10,000/ per clip.
By that standard, as a royalty fee SET India might have paid approximately
Rs 12.5 million, while Balaji’s deal must have been worth about
Rs 10 million.
Internationally, the law works on the line that the non-physical
formats ousted physical formats. It is seen that the royalties on
the non-physical formats is far more than the sales of CDs, audio
cassettes and other forms of products.
The international trend is that a broadcaster/user of licenced
music or any other form of performance pays a blanket licence fee
covering the reproduction of recordings of a soundtrack for telecasting.
Last year, PPL had threatened to take broadcasters to court for
rampant copyright infringement of works of its member companies.
PPL’s contention had been that over the past few years, broadcasters
had been ignoring the organisation's repeated calls to obtain licences
for using musical properties owned by the organisation’s member-companies.
Although, the revenue earned from the telecast fraternity is a
form of source of income but it does not generate a humungous revenue.
The hope of course is that this will change and open out into a
revenue inlet in future.
It remains to be seen whether this new beginning of showing respect
to intellectual property rights spreads in the media and entertainment
industry or gets consigned to the dustbin of modern history as a
rarity.
|
